On Burlington
Today was a special day for two reasons:
1. Milo came home. Milo is this cute, chubby, wrinkly baby who came into this world on April 22, 2005. My cousin just brought him home (my mom, my brother and I are staying over at her house) from the hospital and everybody just fell in love with the little sucker... even though all he does is poop, sleep, and eat. If I knew how to attach pix to this blog you'd all be seeing his wrinkly mug right now.
2. Jakey, Milo's older borhter, had his 4th birthday today. Before Milo came home, Jake transformed the house into a gigantic "teen titans" planet, where he and his noble bodyguard tito gino (aka POWDER-MAN!!!) flew from country to country stealing girlfriends (like Starfire) from boyfriends (like Robin) and throwing those poor suckers into the trash. Yep... that was his greatest birthday wish: to marry 100 girls. Starting young to be a chicker boy, eh?
But, surprisingly, all this activity meant one thing: I actually had more free time to myself than the last couple of days. Since today saw Milo come home and Jakey have a bday, that means that my cousin and her husband got to spend the whole day with their two kids. They're upstairs right now, watching the incredibles and breastfeeding.
Therefore, my mom, brother, and I decided to go out for a walk on this cold and windy day. Zipping up against the 48 degree (fahrenheit) weather, we stepped out into the ancient streets of the historic town of Burlington, New Jersey.
Burlington is somewhat a charming place. I mentioned in the previous post that parts of the neighborhood are rather unsavory. And for the most part, that's true. There are sections of the town, stereotypically enough on the "other side of the track", which are downright nasty. As Tim, my cousin in law, says: It's a nice place... if you like smoking crack! Those are the sections we try to avoid as much as possible.
But there is a nice side to Burlington too.
I've only been here a few times, about 3 I think, but in that short period of time I was able to explore one small area quite well. Accross the street from my cousin's house is a section of the town filled with brick sidewalks, cherry trees, an episcopalian church with a cemetery that spans about two blocks, and houses that date back to the 1800's. To use the word "charming" would be an understatement.
Separated from the crack-head area of the town, this victorian section carries and air of simple civility. The people we saw as we walked down the street smiled at us pleasantly, and the air that wafted up from the Delaware was sweet and crisp.The houses, old as they were, were very well preserved. They looked clean and sturdy, all the while maintaining their stately manner. (Stately Manner? Get it? Manor? Stately Wayne Manor? Ahhhhh ferget it.)
For me, this charm and appeal can be encapsulated by one street: Union Street. The Burlington library can be found here, and it is quite a nice little place. Founded in... oh... I dunno... the Jurassic era, the library has more than capably withstood the test of time and pollution. A small squat building, the library belies its outward dwarfishness by housing a reading area that looks like the interior of a medium sized church. Even if they do not have a very large collection of books, the stock that they do carry are varied and actually quite good. In fact, the very first book I blindly picked out from the shelves was precisely one of the book sI came here to the States to buy: The Dark, edited by Ellen Datlow. Serendipity? Sure.
Above the lending area of the library is a treasure trove for book lovers like me. dozens of shelves lined the wall, each of them full to overflowing with books that looked to be about 100 years old. In fact, they probably were. Even though we couldn't even go near them, the presence of these books, these guardians of words irretrievably uttered, fostered within me a feeling of rightness... a feeling of security for the future.
Down the street from the library is this place called UMMMM! It is an appropriate name for an Ice Cream Parlour. A family run business (I think) in existence for 23 years, Ummm is a fantastic little store where some of the best home-made Ice cream can be found. The staff is warm and courteous, and the clientele has been consistently quite friendly. I like it there.
As we walked back to my cousin's house, we left the security of that area and began to be wary once again; guarding our possessions and looking over our shoulders. Reluctantly, I reminded myself that while Burlington is home to the library and Umm, it contains a darker side as well. It is easy to become enchanted with a place- any place- but we must never forget that the world we live in is a deceptive one... but only if we allow it to be.
1. Milo came home. Milo is this cute, chubby, wrinkly baby who came into this world on April 22, 2005. My cousin just brought him home (my mom, my brother and I are staying over at her house) from the hospital and everybody just fell in love with the little sucker... even though all he does is poop, sleep, and eat. If I knew how to attach pix to this blog you'd all be seeing his wrinkly mug right now.
2. Jakey, Milo's older borhter, had his 4th birthday today. Before Milo came home, Jake transformed the house into a gigantic "teen titans" planet, where he and his noble bodyguard tito gino (aka POWDER-MAN!!!) flew from country to country stealing girlfriends (like Starfire) from boyfriends (like Robin) and throwing those poor suckers into the trash. Yep... that was his greatest birthday wish: to marry 100 girls. Starting young to be a chicker boy, eh?
But, surprisingly, all this activity meant one thing: I actually had more free time to myself than the last couple of days. Since today saw Milo come home and Jakey have a bday, that means that my cousin and her husband got to spend the whole day with their two kids. They're upstairs right now, watching the incredibles and breastfeeding.
Therefore, my mom, brother, and I decided to go out for a walk on this cold and windy day. Zipping up against the 48 degree (fahrenheit) weather, we stepped out into the ancient streets of the historic town of Burlington, New Jersey.
Burlington is somewhat a charming place. I mentioned in the previous post that parts of the neighborhood are rather unsavory. And for the most part, that's true. There are sections of the town, stereotypically enough on the "other side of the track", which are downright nasty. As Tim, my cousin in law, says: It's a nice place... if you like smoking crack! Those are the sections we try to avoid as much as possible.
But there is a nice side to Burlington too.
I've only been here a few times, about 3 I think, but in that short period of time I was able to explore one small area quite well. Accross the street from my cousin's house is a section of the town filled with brick sidewalks, cherry trees, an episcopalian church with a cemetery that spans about two blocks, and houses that date back to the 1800's. To use the word "charming" would be an understatement.
Separated from the crack-head area of the town, this victorian section carries and air of simple civility. The people we saw as we walked down the street smiled at us pleasantly, and the air that wafted up from the Delaware was sweet and crisp.The houses, old as they were, were very well preserved. They looked clean and sturdy, all the while maintaining their stately manner. (Stately Manner? Get it? Manor? Stately Wayne Manor? Ahhhhh ferget it.)
For me, this charm and appeal can be encapsulated by one street: Union Street. The Burlington library can be found here, and it is quite a nice little place. Founded in... oh... I dunno... the Jurassic era, the library has more than capably withstood the test of time and pollution. A small squat building, the library belies its outward dwarfishness by housing a reading area that looks like the interior of a medium sized church. Even if they do not have a very large collection of books, the stock that they do carry are varied and actually quite good. In fact, the very first book I blindly picked out from the shelves was precisely one of the book sI came here to the States to buy: The Dark, edited by Ellen Datlow. Serendipity? Sure.
Above the lending area of the library is a treasure trove for book lovers like me. dozens of shelves lined the wall, each of them full to overflowing with books that looked to be about 100 years old. In fact, they probably were. Even though we couldn't even go near them, the presence of these books, these guardians of words irretrievably uttered, fostered within me a feeling of rightness... a feeling of security for the future.
Down the street from the library is this place called UMMMM! It is an appropriate name for an Ice Cream Parlour. A family run business (I think) in existence for 23 years, Ummm is a fantastic little store where some of the best home-made Ice cream can be found. The staff is warm and courteous, and the clientele has been consistently quite friendly. I like it there.
As we walked back to my cousin's house, we left the security of that area and began to be wary once again; guarding our possessions and looking over our shoulders. Reluctantly, I reminded myself that while Burlington is home to the library and Umm, it contains a darker side as well. It is easy to become enchanted with a place- any place- but we must never forget that the world we live in is a deceptive one... but only if we allow it to be.
posted by Thomas at 2:17 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Thomas writing genius,
I really enjoy your posts. I hope you haven't been stealling too many girlfriends because I know of one who will be pretty pissed with that! :-D
Please open a flickr account, upload pix (that you've resized with photoshop: edit> image> size, save as jpeg) then once saved on flickr you'll be in what's called a photostream.
click on your choice, once magnified, on the right column a tiny option of SIZES will be there > click on it, pick you size and copy the long code (not the html for web w/c is the 1st code, use the 2nd code) past directly on blog post typing box, see preview before you save, and Tah Daaaa, pix on you bloggie!
Good luck and lots of love!
Kathy
dude HEHEHE :) I just found the internet time to get here :) been busy... and so have you :D take care dude... I'm leaving on your sunday and be there by monday :)
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